THE TREASURE-HUNT 131 



approved Indian method, and as soon as it began to 

 crackle, the paper was held as close to the blaze as 

 possible. The Captain had the right idea. As the 

 paper bent under the heat, on its white surface 

 brown tracings appeared, which slowly formed letters 

 and then words, until they could all read : " I am in the 

 hidey-hole of the chimney of the Haunted House. 

 The Treasure. " 



For a moment the Band stared at each other in 

 silence. They had made a special study of pirates, 

 black, white, yellow, and mixed. Haunted houses, 

 however, were beyond their bailiwick. It spoke 

 well for the iron discipline and high hearts of the 

 company that not one of them faltered. Led by 

 dauntless Sergeant Henny-Penny, they crossed the 

 creek in single file on a tippy tree-trunk. Half hid- 

 den in the bushes above, a gaunt stone house stared 

 down at them out of empty window-sockets like a 

 skull. Through the thicket and straight up the 

 slope the Band charged, with such, speed that the 

 Captain was hard put to keep up with his gallant 

 officers. They never halted until they stood at the 

 threshold of the House itself. Under the bowed 

 lintel the Band marched, and never halted until 

 they reached the vast fireplace which took in a whole 

 side of the room. The floorings of the House had 

 gone, and nothing but the naked beams remained, 

 save for a patch of warped boards far up against the 

 stone chimney where the attic used to be. It was 

 plainly there that they must look for the hidey-hole. 



The Captain showed his followers how in one of 



